The US does not have a monopoly on wakeskating. In fact, our little baby has gone so global it’s not even funny. Check out some wakeskating from the land of Ace of Base, ABBA and delicious little meatballs: Sweden!

Sweden is definitely not the most beneficial country to be living in for a wakeskater. The season is short and most people only care to ride during the months June, July and August. Only a couple of us are dedicated enough to put up with the cold air and water in the spring and the fall.

The effect of that the wakeskating scene is so small over here is that no companies are that motivated to try and make it grow by organizing wakeskate only contests or shows etc. They don’t see the potential that our sport has and therefore wakeskating remains a discipline under the wakeboard umbrella, and not it’s own separate sport, which it really needs to be. There are usually around five or six wakeboarding comps with the wakeskating division as a side event.

Despite a lot of companies lack of interest for the industry, there are also companies that do care and want to push the sport by sponsoring riders.

Boat riding is the biggest aspect of wakeskating in Sweden, but winching is starting to grow bigger. Especially since our lakes ice up every now and then during the winter, making it impossible to leave the boats sitting in the water. With a winch we can go riding as long as the lakes or the ocean is free from ice, which tends to be more and more every year as the winters are getting milder up here.

The cable scene is nonexistent, because we don’t actually even have any cable parks at all. The closest by cable is in our neighbour country Norway, and that’s a ten-hour drive to get there.

I still think that the sport can grow here and hope that we have a larger scene in the future, with our own competitions and events.